Originally Posted by
Tombaatar
Question. I have an 88 Trek 400 that I rarely ride because it is not very comfortable. The position of the brake hoods seems too far forward. The handle bars feel too narrow. Brakes are terrible.
So my question is this. I know the bike is rather low end to begin with so is it worth sinking money into to make it more comfortable. Perhaps move the shifters to the brake levers and off the down tube, replace handle bars, put on new rim brakes as the current brakes seem weak. Or do I sell it on Craigslist and buy something new for the same amount of money?
Thanks for posting a pic. It makes some of these questions/issues a lot easier to answer!
Your Trek 400 wasn't particularly high in Trek's model lineup, but it's actually a good bike with a nice True Temper steel frame. A lot of what you mentioned can be fixed pretty easily, like swapping the handlebar for a wider one. But there are a few gotchas that make me think you should consider moving on to another bike...
Starting with the big one: If you find the brake hoods to be too far forward after switching to a taller and shorter stem, you likely need a different type of frame to accommodate a more upright posture than a racing-style road bike is going to give you. You need a frame with a shorter (effective) top tube length to get the hoods any closer. The top tube on your 400 isn't long, so you'd need to switch to a smaller frame. That would put the head tube lower, though, so you'd need a crazy tall stem. ...unless you switch to a different type of frame like maybe a hybrid or 'endurance road' bike.
A different style of handlebar would be another way to bring those bars in. Butterfly/trekking bars if you want to keep the option for multiple hand positions that drop bars offer. Or maybe a flatter bar style like an albatross, porteur, moustache, etc.
You mention moving the shifters up from the downtube. If you had a Shimano index-compatible drivetrain, there are brifters (integrated brake/shift levers) made by Shimano and Microshift that would work with your original derailleurs and freewheel. If your bike was a 1988 Trek 400, you'd be golden. But you've got a
1989 Trek 400, which was equipped with a SunTour Edge drivetrain. SunTour drivetrain components aren't compatible with Shimano's indexed shifting, which means those Microshift and Shimano levers wouldn't work for you. You
could switch to bar end shifters, which would get the shifters off the downtube, so you wouldn't have to reach down quite as far to shift.